Guards Trey Burke and Tim Hardaway Jr. make up one of the best backcourts nationally, which is important to consider when making your NCAA basketball picks Thursday night, as the Michigan Wolverines (16-1) travel to take on the Minnesota Golden Gophers (15-2) at Williams Arena.

Sports bettors will find that the Wolverines are three-point underdogs in the college basketball odds (courtesy of SBR Forum), while the total stands at 139.5.

Burke and Hardaway Jr. are combining to average 34.1 points per game, with the Wolverines looking to bounce back from their first loss of the 2012-13 campaign.

Let's take a closer look at this Big Ten Conference matchup from a betting perspective, while offering up an against-the-spread pick along the way.

Prediction

I'm going to recommend that readers back the Michigan Wolverines as one of their NCAA basketball picks Thursday night, as the underdog is 4-0 against the spread in the last four meetings in this series.